One form of electronic communication is chatting. Chatting has traditionally involved the synchronous, real-time transmission of messages between two or more participants. Text or other suitable content can be entered by a sender into a chat interface displayed on a computer. When the sender has finished entering the content to be delivered to the recipient the sender can initiate transmission of the content over the Internet or other suitable communication network to one or more recipients. The content transmitted by the sender is made available for viewing by the recipient(s) through a similar chat interface operating on another computer that is remotely-located from the sender's computer. Since the content included in an instant message transmitted during a chat session is available for viewing shortly after being transmitted by the sender, participants can engage in a back-and-forth electronic conversation while chatting.
In addition to the transmission of text, chatting has also involved sending graphics to the recipient(s) of a message. An example of a graphic transmitted as part of an electronic communication such as chatting is what is commonly referred to as an emoticon. Early emoticons were a combination of text characters such as brackets and various punctuation marks that collectively resembled a facial expression. More-recently, however, emoticons have evolved into simple graphical facial expressions representing different emotions. Graphics such as emoticons have been included in messages to be transmitted while chatting to convey the mood or sentiment of the sender of a particular message. However, all users of a chat interface are presented with the same menu of available emoticons from which they can choose the emoticons they would like to include in their messages. Offering the same standardized menu of emoticons available to all users limits the ability of users to express their individuality, and may result in users losing interest in that form of communication.